Abundance and Taxonomic Diversity of Bacteria Inhabiting the Sediment-Water Interface in a Marine Harbor Channel

Abstract

The abundance of bacteria inhabiting the sedimentwater interface and their taxonomic composition were determined with the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method in a marine harbor channel in Ustka. Among bacteria inhabiting the studied layer Gammaproteobacteria (1.4 cells 10 8 •dm-3) and Cytophaga-Flavobacterium (1.1 cells 10 8 •dm-3) dominated. Vibrio and Pseudomonas represented only a small fraction of the total cell counts. All taxonomic groups of studied bacteria show significant positive correlation between their abundance. The total bacterial number varied from 3.3 to 23.5 cells 10 8 •dm-3 and their biomass oscillated from 39.4 to 282.4 µg C•dm-3. This parameter differed along horizontal profiles, while there were no significant differences in the abundance of the studied taxonomic groups among the study sites of the channel in Ustka. The total number of bacteria as well as the abundance of bacterial phylogenetic groups were subject to seasonal fluctuation in the studied water basin.